Friday, January 29, 2010

There are only a few days remaining if you plan to sign up for any of the remaining full-day or half-day workshops at ICE Conference 2010. Workshop registration will close on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, so if you are interested in enrolling in any of the workshops that still have some seats remaining, we encourage you to act soon before they fill. Remember that if you are also planning to attend one or both of the general conference days, you can register for all of these events at one time by visiting our online registration system.

There are still openings in several workshops that cover a wide range of topics and grade levels. If you are looking to become more proficient in the use of software applications, you can find workshops on Joomla, Dreamweaver, Moodle, VoiceThread, GarageBand, iWork, and many others. Since workshops are structured as "hands on" learning experiences, you will be able to try out all of the tools and features while the ideas are fresh in your mind.

If you are more interested in exploring concepts that are not tied to specific software applications, the list of available workshops includes topics such as building school web sites, creating online learning modules, using geocaching as a learning experience, creating your own audiobooks, and incorporating blogs and wikis into classroom activities. Sessions on social networking sites, open source software, video production, Google resources, and Internet safety also have a few remaining seats.

Remember that if you register for a half-day workshop that meets from 10:00 am-12:30 pm on Thursday or Friday, you are also registered for all other general conference events for that day. You can attend the Keynote presentation before the workshop and sit in on other breakout sessions or visit the Exhibit Hall after the workshop._________________________________________________

systems and are starting to use that valuable data to change classroom practice and improve student achievement, according to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Education.

But school leaders are still searching for the best models to mine the data to discover the best instructional methods for students, the report says.

“Data should be part of a feedback loop used to drive improvement at every level of the education system. This study helps us understand the kinds of data that need to be available for teachers and school leaders if they’re going to use data to improve their practice,” said Carmel Martin, assistant secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.

In “Use of Education Data at the Local Level: From Accountability to Instructional Improvement,” researchers surveyed officials from 529 districts, conducted in-depth site visits to 36 schools in 12 districts leading the way in data usage, and analyzed secondary data from a survey of over 6,000 teachers to obtain a national picture of current data use practices at the local-level.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

"The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.” —Michelle Andrews "

This article responds to a generation of techno-criticism in education. It contains a review of the key themes of that criticism. The context of previous efforts to reform education reframes that criticism. Within that context, the question is raised about what schools need to look and be like in order to take advantage of laptop computers and other technology. In doing so, the article presents a vision for self-organizing schools.

The past several years have seen laptop prices plunge to commodity levels at the same time that the explosion in WiFi access has made getting them on the 'Net much easier. That's prompted an explosion of one-to-one student:laptop programs, implemented by everything from individual schools to entire states. Hard data on the effectiveness of these programs, however, has been hard to come by. The most recent issue of The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment is devoted to looking at these programs, and it includes some hard data suggesting that they just might help students handle standardized tests. "

Now, in many respects, information has never been so free. There are more ways to spread more ideas to more people than at any moment in history. And even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable.

During his visit to China in November, for example, President Obama held a town hall meeting with an online component to highlight the importance of the internet. In response to a question that was sent in over the internet, he defended the right of people to freely access information, and said that the more freely information flows, the stronger societies become. He spoke about how access to information helps citizens hold their own governments accountable, generates new ideas, encourages creativity and entrepreneurship. The United States belief in that ground truth is what brings me here today.

Because amid this unprecedented surge in connectivity, we must also recognize that these technologies are not an unmitigated blessing. These tools are also being exploited to undermine human progress and political rights. Just as steel can be used to build hospitals or machine guns, or nuclear power can either energize a city or destroy it, modern information networks and the technologies they support can be harnessed for good or for ill. The same networks that help organize movements for freedom also enable al-Qaida to spew hatred and incite violence against the innocent. And technologies with the potential to open up access to government and promote transparency can also be hijacked by governments to crush dissent and deny human rights.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Wes Fryer's website, Moving at the Speed of Creativity, offers fascinating insights on K-12 education and technology integration. It's one of the "must-read" blogs in our field. On January 11, Wes posted a fascinating article reflecting on a particular situation involving the misuse of media in the classroom. To his chagrin, Wes discovered that his son, who is a middle-school student, will be watching 10 popular children's films in his Leadership class. Films include Mulan, Toy Story 1 and 2, and the Bee Movie, among others. When the permission letter came home, authorizing parental permission for viewing full-length movies, Wes wondered about the issue, writing, "It seems like a GREAT idea for a teacher to use excerpts and clips from movies to illustrate leadership principles and concepts, but it does NOT seem legit to show ten full length DVD movies in class to ostensibly achieve this same purpose."

He invited his many readers to reflect on the legal and pedagogical issues involved, and asked "What Would Renee Hobbs Do?" How very flattering! Thanks, Wes! So here's my two cents:

Copyright and fair-use issues in schools are often poorly understood by educators. My most recent post about this, on 21 December 2009, was “Fair Use in Videos Using Pictures with Copyrighted Music.” In that post, I questioned the legality (under fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law) of using an entire copyrighted song for a web-posted slideshow video. In this post, I want to question the propriety and legality of using ten full-length movies in their entirety in a student leadership class taught in the United States, without explicit permission granted from the copyright holders. Use of full-length commercial DVDs definitely CAN qualify under fair use provisions of law in some cases, but TEN COMMERCIAL DVDs? I don’t think so.

I have been asked to be one of the leaders for this session and will be somewhat involved in the planning process. So, what would you like to see out of the Academy? Let me know and I will pass it along.